Page 24 of Warlord's Plaything

I let my fingers skim the inside of her wrist, slow, testing.

She doesn’t pull away.

Neither do I.

The moment stretches, thick and poisonous.

Then I turn to the nobles, voice calm, cruel.

"She is mine to punish."

The murmurs start immediately.

But no one dares argue.

I’ve made it clear.

She belongs to me.

And the only person who gets to break her...

Is me.

9

HIRA

The moment the heavy doors of his chamber slam shut, I know I’m fucked.

Not in the literal way—though from the way Xyron’s golden gaze burns into me, I’m not sure if that’s something he’s considering.

No, this is something worse.

Something more dangerous.

Something that thrums in the air between us, thick with the implications of what happened in the arena.

He should have struck me down in front of them all. He should have ended me.

Instead, he claimed me.

"She is mine to punish."

The words still coil inside my head like a slow-burning poison.

Mine.

The bastard thinks he owns me.

But he doesn’t know what to do with me.

The room is stiflingly quiet.

The only sound is the distant crackle of the firelight against the obsidian walls, the soft scrape of his boots as he moves toward me.

I don’t step back.

I refuse to.

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